Rotation
The Jesus Lizard Shot Capitol I don’t care if, with this CD, Chicago’s the Jesus Lizard has moved away from longtime indie home-label Touch and Go and invited cries of sellout from the indie minions. Let ’em cry. I don’t care if vocalist David Yow has finally taken the opportunity…
Static
Major inhale… With a band name like Superdrag, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that someone among this Tennessee foursome has a passion for tobacco. That someone is professed nicotine fiend John Davis, who also happens to be the band’s lead singer and primary songwriter. Davis litters Superdrag’s stellar new…
The Resurrection of Sam Taylor
The grim hearsay surrounding Sam Taylor took to the air sometime last year, swirling its way like a tiny, gossip-fueled twister around the city. The rumor mill came to a head last fall when an anonymous caller telephoned the Press to report that, among other things, Taylor, once the management…
The Name Game
In rock and roll, being first matters. Austin’s Little Sister found that out last month after signing a sweet deal with Arista Texas. The ink was barely dry on its contract with the major label when a problem cropped up: the band’s name. Though Little Sister had been playing for…
Same Old Sir
Why the Sir Douglas Quintet has never managed to carve itself a permanent position at the top of the charts is one of the mysteries of the musical universe. It may be that bands that stay perpetually in front of the curve are simply destined to remain untainted by the…
Adams Family Values
The mood should have been celebratory around the Adams Petroleum Center. It was the day of the 61st NFL draft, and the Oilers had managed to land Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George, a powerful running back expected to be a key addition to what everybody says will be an up-and-coming…
Cool, Calm and Culinary
Stepping into benjy’s after a few visits to our town’s many mural-laden restaurant interiors is like entering a Japanese temple following a weekend at Versailles: the spare surroundings are a tonic to nerves burnt out from too much visual stimulation. In his black raiment, benjy’s unflappable proprietor exudes a gentle,…
In Tune
Take some greased hair, tight T-shirts and witty dialogue, mix in a little gospel and doo-wop music, and what do you have? John Jiler’s Avenue X, now in production at Theater LaB. Originally produced at Playwrights Horizons in New York, Jiler’s musical has over the last two years been fiddled…
Old-fashioned Heiress
For its final Large Stage show of the season, the Alley has decided to go traditional in a big way, reviving with almost academic faithfulness a play written in the 1940s that’s based on a novel published in the 1880s. And though more than a century has passed since the…
Storm Troopers
Twister opens with a dark and stormy night, the darkest and stormiest ever filmed, thanks to contemporary effects technology. Against a symphony of thunderclouds, whirling debris and exploding transformers, a grim little farm family races for their storm cellar. Minutes into the movie, the suspense is excruciating: will the farm…
Cajun 12-Step
Dave Robicheaux is a former New Orleans homicide detective who stopped being a cop right around the time he quit drinking, because he figured both pursuits were harmful to his health. Along with his supportive but not uncritical wife, Annie, he moved back to the Louisiana bayou country, promising her…
Soles on Ice
Janie Parker has beautiful feet. You’re not likely to get much of an argument on that point from Houston Ballet fans, who, over the last two decades, have watched as Parker not only danced her way to the top of the heap in Houston, but also helped dance the Ballet…
The Insider
Ring Around the Sting The names that have surfaced thus far in the FBI sting at the ReBates Hotel fit neatly into a puzzle centered around former city councilman Ben Reyes. Described by his attorney, Mike Ramsey, as “the most deeply involved in this,” Reyes has been pursued by the…
Coffee with Betti and the FBI
By Thursday, May 2, Betti Maldonado had grown very nervous over her association with the Cayman Group, two investors seeking a piece of developer Wayne Duddlesten’s contract to build a city-subsidized hotel near the George R. Brown Convention Center. The men, supposedly wealthy South Americans named Carlos Montero and Marcos…
Letters
It’s Your Back Yard, Too I am impressed with the Houston Press and especially Laurel Brubaker Calkins for her piece on Charles Hurwitz [“The Case Against Hurwitz,” April 25]. Calkins did an excellent job dissecting Hurwitz’s business dealings and writing it so that the common person can understand. I applaud…
Press Picks
thursday may 16 May is Mental Health Month The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 17 million Americans have a brush with depression each year. If you’re wondering whether your malaise is a reasonable response to dealing with crazy people on the freeway, or instead something that might be…
Anniversary Feast
The venerable A Moveable Feast, granddaddy of Houston’s health food scene, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The establishment’s metamorphosis over that time from a natural foods store with a juice bar into a full-fledged, semi-serve restaurant with an equal following of button-downed corporate types and Birkenstock-sporting health fiends can…